Get it done

Totally don't feel like posting.  I feel like going on a chocolate and wine fueled act of crazy.  I hate hormones.  No wine or chocolate has been consumed, but the idea tempts.  Ugh!

Food was pretty normal.  So is the quality of my photography.  I feel like I should start each post with the caveat: "No cans of Alpo were used in these photos."

Greek meat loaf, cucumbers, 3 T of greek yogurt.

 Salad.

 Not photographed: 1 baggie with 1 cup of grapes.  When I got home I had a bran cracker and my last wedge of Laughing Cow.

Also, coffee and prunes!

Dinner was roasted squash and a pork chop.  There is a sweet potato on this plate, but even I couldn't eat all this!  Potato will be consumed at a later date.  They may not exactly be "my taste" but I love these dishes.  They were my grandparent's - I used to eat off these when I visited their house.  Good memories - it makes me happy every day to use them.

Ok, I take it back about no chcocolate - I had a Fudgecicle.

Monday and the rest of Sunday

So, Sunday...  I put the pepper steak on late and it wasn't ready, so we reverted to Plan B: nachos.  I baked a couple of tortillas, pulled out some sauteed ground beef from the freezer, made guacomole.  I also heated up some beans and hub bought fresh salsa.  It was very good.

Then I drank 2 beers.  Yes, they were good.  But I don't know if they were worth the calories.

Breakfast today: the greek meatloaf, and bunch of sliced cucumbers, and some greek yogurt with dill.

The usual prunes and coffee.

The usual lunch:

Afternoon snack was a bran cracker and a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese.  When I was a little girl, my grandma used to buy the little cubes of Laughing Cow as a special treat when I would come visit.  A cube was maybe 1/3 of a wedge.  They don't make those any more, but Laughing Cow always reminds me of my grandma.  I don't buy them often, I don't eat much cheese, but they are a nice change on a cracker now and again.

Dinner was the peppersteak (steak, peppers, onion, tomatoes, and spices in the crockpot - easy and good) with 1/2 cup quinoa and brussel sprouts.

Then I ate a Fudgecicle.

We are watching "The Big Year" - if you haven't seen it its really cute.  I admit the concept (guys bird watching) didn't appeal, but they showed it on the boat down in the Keys and we enjoyed it, but we couldn't hear it.  So we are watching it tonight.

Have a good evening!

My day so far

Got up, fed the dogs, took a walk.

Breakfast was 2 eggs, 1 slice of bacon, and leftover green beans.

Later I had my 2 prunes and coffee.

For lunch I decided to mix it up: I ate my piece of grilled chicken hot since it had just come off the grill - with a little homemade bbq sauce.  And the large cucumber and tomato in a salad, with sparkling water.

Mid afternoon snack I had a bowl of hot air popped popcorn.

I have pepper steak in the crockpot, which I will post later on.  I plan to serve quinoa and roasted brussel sprouts with it.

Hub ran to get some mulch then we plan to get in the pool.  I worked today, although at home. I was able to finish the laundry - huzzah!  Sadly, only 50% of my house is clean.  Ugh.

Sunday already?

This weekend has flown by.  We've been busy, but haven't gotten done as much as I hoped we would.  Hub has done a lot of the prep work to paint our kitchen cabinets, but I was hoping that would be farther along.  I've bought and prepped food and cleaned the kitchen a million times and done 5000 loads o laundry, but I still feel like there's a lot to do.  Sigh.

One thing I do Sunday mornings is food prep.  This is a pretty typical scene:

Fruits and vegetables are hanging out in a cold water and vinegar bath while I prep other stuff.  Here is a double batch of turkey meatballs a tray with greek style meat loaf (it has spices, feta, and spinach) that will be for our breakfasts this week.  I'll use half the meatballs for dinner one night and save the other half for  a later meal another week.

                                                    

Breakfast was 2 slices of bacon and the 'golden pancake' recipe from Bill Phillip's "Eating for Life".  Basically, 3 eggs, 1 c oats, 1 c cottage cheese, with vanilla and cinnamon.  Good, but very dense.  I ate about half the recipe.

These are the leftovers from last night - eggplant parm and broccoli. That was lunch.

Afternoon snack was 2 bran crackers with hummus and sparkling water.

Dinner was baked salmon, roasted green beans, baked tomatoes (with basil and a little cheese on top), and a fruit salad of blueberries, kiwi, and mango.

Not yet eaten, but I will probably have a fudgecicle later.

I had my coffee this morning but forgot my prunes!  I'm off to have those right now!

Have a good evening!

Saturday food

So, kinda odd day.  Didn't feel like cooking breakfast, so I grabbed a couple of boiled eggs out of the fridge for breakfast and smeared mustard on them.

Did the usual coffee & prunes.

Lunch was the grilled chicken salad & tea (unsweet).

 After that I had 2/3 of a key lime pretzel - we bought 2 last weekend in Key Largo.  Think chocolate covered pretzel but with key lime flavor.

It's our anniversary so we went out to the Italina place near the house.  I had eggplant parm and steamed broccoli.  I ate half the eggplant and maybe 1/3 of the broccoli.  I drank water.  The rest will probably be lunch tomorrow, so you can see the leftovers then.  Sorry the picture is so dark - it was kinda dark in the restaurant.

Now I'm gonna go walk the dogs and hang out with my awesome husband!

Another thing that made me laugh, and then off to clean the house!

Groundhog day

Yesterday after work I had a whole bunch of stuff to take care of.  By the time it was dinner time I was too tired to cook, so .... I simply served the leftovers from the night before.  (Thank you creator that my husband eats leftovers!).

As a result, with the exception of a boiled egg I got mid morning, my food looked exactly like the day before, right down to the lentil soup & green beans for dinner.

Here's what a boiled egg and mustard look like! :-)

No big plans for the holiday - I am working and we are busy doing stuff around the house.  Somehow it has become a disaster zone.  Since I can't afford to abandon it and start fresh, I guess we'll have to clean.

I'll be back later today with more pictures, in the meantime, here's a quote I saw on cakewrecks.com, which made me laugh hysterically.  Its funny cause its true - I wear a jacket at my desk and still have to go outside periodically to warm up.

"People tend to think Floridians are super tan, summer-loving sun-worshippers. Hee! SO CUTE. No, we're the ones huddled inside with the AC blasting, laughing at all you crazy tourists are out there getting heat strokes. We also own more sweaters than the average Alaskan, because there is no place colder in the continental U.S. than inside a Florida public building during the month of June."

Allan's challenge may be over, but I may mush on - in some form or fashion!

First off, thanks for all the wonderful comments! I feel like I've made a whole slew of friends here lately.  This challenge has been a blast!  Not sure how much longer I will post pics, maybe I'll try posting my food log from sparkpeople or something.  I like the extra bit of accountability, and I think its spurred some good conversation.

One thing this challenge has reinforced for me is the belief that if you want a diet to work, you have to make a diet that will work for you.  Some people avoid sugar like the plague because it sets off binges, which it doesn't for me (I just don't eat it because it isn't good for me and its loaded with empty calories), some people avoid red meat (I don't eat much but I will have a steak now and again).  I think yogurt is mostly gross but some people love it for breakfast - you get the idea.

Figuring out what you like, what amount of cooking you are willing to do, and what foods allow you to lose weight successfully seem to be critical.  They may also be subject to change over time. 

I love to cook and am very good at planning our meals and doing weekend prep work.  The personal trainer at work is after me to set up a side business selling prepared meals.  Its a pretty good idea.  I know he & his wife eat out all the time because neither have the time or inclination to cook.  He figures it would be cheaper to outsource to a personal chef than eat out as often as they do.  Maybe that will be my third career!

Anyway, today's exercise was Shaun T's Rockin Body Disco Party.  That guy cracks me up - I was really giggling at some points wth all his gyrating. :-)  I can't do the moves half as well as anyone in the video (of course!) but I was up & moving for 40 minutes, so its all good.

Food - do I even need labels any more? I eat the same thing every day!

Dinner was lentil soup with chicken kielbasa, roasted green beans, and a fudgecicle.

Wednesday!

Today was a good day!  No particular reason, I just decided to make it that way. :-)

Exercise today: This morning I did 300 kettlebell swings and a Pilates video.  This afternoon I did Dance Party with Shaun T.  It was a hoot!  There is a group of ladies that work out every afternoon to some sort of video - they've done PX90, Insanity, that sort of thing.  It was 45 minutes of crazy fun!

On to food: the usual coffee and prunes:

Breakfast was a turkey burger with mustard and sliced cucumbers.

Lunch was the usual grilled chicken and salad except I made a greek vinegarette dressing - living on the edge!

 Snack was grapes.

Dinner was a baked pork chop, ear of corn, roasted asparagus, and a fruit salad of fresh mango and kiwi. I don't put anything on my corn - not even salt & pepper.  I like it plain.  Good corn tastes good!

I eat a lot of food at my desk because I use my lunchtime to work out.

That's all I've got today - that puts me right around 1200 calories.  It doesn't sound like a  lot but I look at my meals and I certainly feel like I eat a good amount of food - I'm not stuffed but I'm not starving either.

Tuesday

Well, I'm back.  I got back from vacation Sunday, but yesterday turned out to be a totally craptacular day and I didn't even think about posting food later in the day - I was too busy being upset.  (It was work related so I'd rather not get into it here.)  Oh well, it happens, moving on.

To answer a question in the comments: I live outside Ft. Lauderdale, so Key Largo is less than 90 minutes from my house.

So, food today.  Things were back to normal, starting with coffee and prunes:

Yesterday I bought food but hadn't gotten food prep done, so this morning I scrambled a couple of eggs with a large tomato:

Lunch was a salad, but with a can of tuna since chicken wasn't grilled.

I had a few grapes mid afternoon (no nuts).

Dinner was turkey chili and sauteed zucchini.  My husband doesn't like vegetables in his chili, so I serve them on the side.

Since I started tracking my food, I've been losing right around 2 pounds a week.  Clearly my diet still has room for improvement - I won't pretend that diet pepsi or popsicles are anything other than a serving of chemicals, but my weight loss has been pretty solid in spite of those items.

I haven't looked in on the other folks since I got back. Are people still posting?  I know for me it seems to make a difference, if for no other reason that it forces me to pause and consider before I eat something.